| Materials!
Chestnuts
are delectable. Jays, voles, squirrels, chipmunks, and mice love the
nuts, and deer and rabbits love to browse the young foliage.We've
economized!
Each well protected nut or sprout needs a:
Bamboo
Stake ($.10 ea)
18" Coverall (Mesh $.40 ea)
Aluminum Collar at base ($.30 ea)
Permanent tag ($.08 ea))
Fertilizer pack ($.14 ea)
Expected
Total: $1.00 per tree
(*all prices based on standard materials from Forestry Supplies.)
Plus Supplies:
Mulch (donated by Mass Electric)
RoundUp to beat back the weeds
Slow-Acting fertilizer every two weeks
Planting mix for hole (1/3 peat, 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 perlite)
Mycorrhiza!
The Wrentham site looked perfect, an open hayfield in full sun with
good access to water. The precious back cross sprouts were carefully
planted, well-mulched with wood chips, fertilized regularly, and failed
to grow. The first year seedlings were stunted, at most reaching
12 inches.
Another site was a rough-hewn woodland acre clearing, newly logged and
stumped, over-run with poison ivy and multiflora roses. The precious
sprouts were planted in spaces, and grew vigorously, many reaching
a three-foot height in the first season.
What was the difference? Our best answer is that the woodland
site was still richly colonized with mycorrhiza, those essential
subterranean fungal hyphae networks that enable trees to extract and
process nutrients. There is now substantial research in chestnuts to
help define their mycorrhizal needs. We do know that wild chestnut
seedlings were noted preferentially to establish among pines, perhaps
to tap into the ready-made pine mycorrhizal networks.
How
could we rescue the first site? With a hint from one of our members,
we invested in 40 yards of Bio-Compost, a slow-fertilizing mix of bio-sludge
and composed wood chips, produced by New England Organics. This
was applied over the existing mulch. Within 3 weeks, a variety
of mushrooms (those visible signs of fungi) flourished all over the
mulch, and stunted seedlings trees started growing vigorously, putting
on two to three feet of wonderful growth, with big beautiful leaves.
It was a miracle!
|
Contribute to Basic Materials for Seedlings
Contribute to Biocompost Mulch to Assist Mycorrhiza
|
|
________________________________________________________________________________________
Yes, I would like to sponsor the BC3
nuts from this year. I can help with
Five
nuts---------------------------$5.00
Ten nuts----------------------------$10.00
Or _________
nuts for $_________
Yes, I would like help buy Biocompost
mulch for our Back Cross Orchards. I can help with
One yard -----------------------------$12.50
Five yards --------------------------- $60.00
Ten yards ---------------------------$125.00
Total: ________________________________________
Make
check payable to The Mass Chapter of TACF (for nuts and/or mycorrizha.)
Thanks for your support!
Name________________________________________________________________________________
Address______________________________________________________________________________
Email/Phone
Numbers_________________________________________________________________
Mail
to Kathy Desjardin (address below)
|